THE BURNING OF THE BIBLE.
By T. De Witt Talmage
HERE is a perfect Bible. It seems that instead of destroying the Bible, the chapters have been driven in and clenched on the other side by the hammers of eternity. The fact is, that the Book, so far from being destroyed, is going on until the fires of the last day, and when the fires of the last day are kindled, they will not find the Bible a bundle of loose letters, but a compact Book; and when the fires begin to burn on one side, they will burn from Genesis toward Revelation; then the other fires will burn from Revelation toward Genesis, and they will in all their course not find one chapter or one verse out of place. That will be the only time the world can afford to do without the Bible. What use, then, of Genesis, with its description of the making of the world, which is all destroyed? What use, then, of the prophecies? All are fulfilled. What use then, of the evangelistic and Pauline description of Jesus Christ when we see Him face to face? What use of the Book of Revelation, when we stand with our foot on the glassy sea, and our hand on the ringing harp, our forehead chapleted with eternal coronation amid the amethystine and twelve-gated glory of heaven, the emerald dashing its green against the beryl, the beryl dashing its blue against the sapphire, the sapphire throwing its light on the jacinth, the jacinth dashing its fire against the chrysoprasus, and we standing amid the chorus of ten thousand sunsets?—T. De Witt Talmage.